CAFE Change Summit: Year 1

CAFE Change Summit: Year 1

The first CAFE Change Summit is in the books. It featured extraordinary guests – from a panel on creating a movement with Shannon Watts, Katie Couric, and Shenee Johnson, to a conversation about fighting corruption with Garry Kasparov and Bill Browder, to an exchange with Hasan Minhaj about the role of comedy in changing culture.

We heard from people like Ronan Farrow who exposed wrongdoing; people like Bassem Youssef who stood up to autocrats; and people like Shiza Shahid who harnessed energy to build a movement. We heard from members of the CAFE 100, who are breaking through traditional barriers to make their mark.

Most importantly, we heard about individual people taking concrete steps to change their community, their country, and their world.

For me, that’s what made the CAFE Change Summit such an amazing experience: the opportunity to engage with so many inspiring individuals, from household names to emerging leaders, about the issues that impact people’s lives every day.

But this isn’t the end. In the coming months, we’ll be expanding on that work – engaging in conversation, collaborating on new projects, and finding innovative ways to change the world. I’m excited to harness the energy that we saw at the summit, and to bring in new aspiring change-makers who want to take the next step. And I intend to work with this amazing community to further the goals that we established this year: inspiring change, advancing thought, and driving action.